If your first choice was
coho salmon,
give yourself credit for a good (but not correct) answer. I would have
given that same answer. However, after doing a little research, I learned
that coho were first stocked in the Great Lakes in 1966, 10 years after the
successful (and inadvertent) introduction of about 21,000
pink salmon
into northwestern Lake Superior. Though pink salmon are relatively unimportant
to anglers, there are small, self-sustaining populations of this species dispersed
throughout the upper Great Lakes (examiner.com,
2012).
Chinook Salmon
(pictured below), the largest and most successful of the salmon species
to be introduced into Lake Superior tributaries, were first successfully
stocked in the
Great Lakes by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in 1967. Despite many attempts to introduce
Atlantic Salmon,
this species has not adapted as well to the Great Lakes, and initial stocking
efforts were only minimally successful. However, the state of Michigan is
making another attempt to stock them in Lake Huron. Minnesota state records for pink, coho, chinook, and Atlantic salmon
are 4 pounds, 8 ounces; 10 pounds, 7 ounces; 33 pounds, 4 ounces; and 12 pounds,
13 ounces, respectively
(MN DNR,2014).